Friday, 19 April 2019

Web builders make the process of getting a website online easy. They remove the need for any level of technical knowledge. Most use graphical interfaces which mean you can drag and drop the elements of your website into place, and you don’t have to worry about installing, configuring or coding. This is appealing, but there is another option – using web hosting and setting your website up manually.

Web hosting has many advantages over a web builder. Here are a few:

Flexibility

Think of this analogy: The easiest way to choose clothes in a store is to select the mannequin which you think is the best dressed, and then pick those exact items from the shelves. This will give you a stylish outfit and you’ll know that all of the pieces fit together. But unless you are the same size as a mannequin – and the same proportions – the clothes will not look the same on you as they do in the store. Plus there might be other options that suit you better – different colors or different styles. And you might be better buying a skirt in one store and a top in another.

The same applies when you are building a website. The web builder option is quick and easy. You will get a website that looks good and that functions well. But you will have less options and less control.

Setting up web hosting and then creating your website from there means you are in complete control. You can create a design without the restrictions of the web builder’s templates. Plus you can add as many pages and functions to your website as you need.

Transferability

When you use a web builder you are often locked in. That means you can’t lift your website – design, graphics, content etc. – and transfer it somewhere else.

When you build a website manually it is much easier to transfer your site between hosts. Not only do you own the design, but you are in control of it as well.

The Time Saving Myth

Many people believe that building a website using a web builder is the quickest option. This is only partially true.

In the short-term you will get your website online quicker because the learning curve is not as steep. But you will still have to learn how to use the web builder, which will take some time. Issues arise when you take a longer-term approach to this. Each web builder is different so unless you stay with the same provider forever, you will have to learn a new system if you decide to move. This is another downside of the non-transferable nature of a web builder – you cannot transfer the skills you learn to other systems.

Building your website manually is different. To build your website you will probably use a content management system like WordPress or Joomla, or one of the popular shopping cart platforms if you run an online store. The skills you learn on these platforms will transfer wherever your website is hosted. So, in the long run, you will save time.

The other factor that explodes the time myth in relation to web builders is content. The design and structure of your website is important to making it a success, but the most important part is the content. This includes the copy, the images, and the graphics.

When it comes to content it doesn’t matter what platform you use, it still takes time to create. Web builders can speed up the design part, but they cannot help you create quality content. You will either have to spend the time creating the content yourself, or you’ll need to pay someone to do it for you.

So the argument of whether to use a web builder or web hosting comes down to the same sort of decision you make when you go shopping: Do you take the easy but inflexible option and buy an outfit put together by someone else; or do you spend a bit more time choosing something that is right for you?